Panic! attack at MTV Video Music Awards Panic! at the Disco (pictured) won for Best Video at last night's MTV Video Music Awards, which I didn't watch, because, a.) after about five minutes, Jack Black gets on my nerves, and b.) as Jim Derogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times puts it, the idea of "MTV giving awards to videos when videos are increasingly an afterthought squeezed between endless repeats of 'Laguna Beach,' 'My Super Sweet 16' and 'Two-a-Days'" is absurd. True dat, homies.
Somehow this past year, I've managed to catch the P!atD video that won the award, "I Write Sins Not Tragedies," a time or two on MTV (and on YouTube of course). It's an entertaining punk-cabaret style story about a wedding crashed by a Clockwork Orange-style group of hooligans and carnival freaks, set to a simple pop rhythm. Rich with theatrics and symbolism (a Salvador Dali-like character blows pixie dust on the congregants, opening their eyes to a heretofore unknown reality), "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" is probably deserving of the award. It's certainly more artsy and creative than some of the other nominees, i.e., "Hips Don't Lie" (although the way Shakira moves her hips is an art all its own). Still, I thought Red Hot Chili Peppers' video for "Dani California" (thanks again, YouTube) was a contender, and I was sort of rooting for it to win simply because I loved the concept: the history of rock in four minutes and 45 seconds. (Even though I didn't like the song that much, as it's a ripoff from Tom Petty.)